The first edition of Harris, O'Boyle and Warbrick: Law of the European Convention on Human Rights swiftly established itself as a seminal legal textbook. The eagerly awaited second edition builds on the great strengths of the first, and is an indispensible text for all undergraduates, postgraduates and practitioners. Its publication coincides with the 50th anniversary of the European Court of Human Rights, a major milestone in European legal history.

An up-to-date and comprehensive account of Strasbourg case law and its underlying principles, this book facilitates an in-depth understanding of this fascinating area of law. It fully explores the extent of the Convention's influence upon the legal development of the contracting states, and reveals exactly how such a powerful authority has been achieved and maintained. It sets out and critically analyses each Convention article that constitutes the substantive guarantee, and examines the system of supervision.

The Convention currently binds 47 European states, and its reach is set to expand even further. It has effectively become the constitutional bill of rights for Europe, providing common human rights standards for the whole continent. National parliaments and courts must constantly look to the Convention when legislating and deciding cases, or run the risk of adverse Strasbourg judgments with which they must then comply. For nearly all states, the Convention has been made directly enforceable in their national courts. For the remaining few, it offers a model for a national bill of rights. All of these considerations underline the immense value of the comprehensive account of the law of the Convention that this book provides.

Provides a critical analysis of the substantive content of each of the basic rights of the European Convention on Human Rights and successive Protocols;

The content and scope of each article is analysed with the most thorough exploration of the case law of the European Court of Human Rights contained in any textbook;

Contains a thorough account of the organisation and functioning of the European Court of Human Rights and the procedure for taking a case to Strasbourg, of value to students and practitioners alike

New to this edition:

Fully revised and updated to take into account the enormous amounts of new jurisprudence issued since publication of the first edition in 1995;

The European Convention on Human Rights has changed radically since the publication of the first edition and the text has been updated to take these changes into account, including consideration of the impact of the admission of new member states from the Eastern bloc, the reforms in the working of the European Court of Human Rights and the huge increase in the volume of the Court's case law